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Deutsch Nepal ‎– Alcohology

Before my first contact with this album I decided to pop out to a liquor store on purpose and buy a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label, which was supposed to strengthen the reception and discover something that an abstainer would never have noticed. And it turns out that yes, this album is definitely high-percentage; not only because of the title, the bizarre cover of loathsome fat men with the heads of snarling dogs and – as I see it – a glass of golden liquor captured from the bottom, but the music itself as well. On “Alcohology” Deutsch Nepal returns after more than four years, and does it in very good style.

In the past Lina Baby Doll was releasing in Stalplaat, Old Europa Cafe and Cold Meat Industry. His latest child is born thanks to his own Entartete Musikk label, resurrected after many years. As he says, “the object for the album is the impact alcohol might have on people when consumed.” No matter from which side you look at it, Deutsch Nepal was always a unique project, mixing industrial with dark ambient influences and experimental elements, plunging it all in a high-grade elixir and mixing the sacred and solemn with dirt and rust.

Each consecutive song is better than the previous one – excluding perhaps the last track, a kind of “remake” of “Erosion”, more lavish and better sounding than the 1999 version, but I’m not sure whether it makes an equally spectacular impression. I think the album reaches its climax at an earlier point. Though it begins powerfully, “Alcohology Superior” I buy from the very beginning. Based on mechanical rhythms, probably inspired by the magic of some rusted machinery watching the end of its days at some steelworks in Boxholm. Lina’s dreary words doesn’t let the sun in between its modes. His vocals play an important role in most of the songs on “Alcohology”. I always liked Lina’s singing, he may not have a particularly spectacular voice, but he sings with such inspiration, sometimes almost like a zealous preacher, bringing the human element in this mechanized structure.

Don’t expect any cheerful and colorful psychedelia straight from the latest Der Blutharsch offerings in “Cosmic Trigger”. This may be one of the most depressing pieces Deutsch Nepal has created so far. It’s like a reversed side of “An Invitation To Heaven” from “Amygdala”, as Lina takes the listener straight to hell. While somewhere around “Alcohology Minor” this intoxication which provides an illusory solace and oblivion, is already a thing of the past. Only the fucking hangover remains. And a death wish. I guess this is where we hit an emotional bottom. Obviously it’s a variation of “Alcohology Superior”, with the same lyrics and singing manner, yet more dynamic and with some added atmospheric synth parts.

You can listen to this album both at church and in your own room, surrounded by empty bottles lying on the floor in a pool of puke. Both ways are appropriate.